New Ulm weekly review., 1887-03-09

songs for us, songs which he had heard
his mother sing. ! have sat and lis
tened to his Barbara Allen" as the
echoes ran riot among the caves and
jungles, till the big owl returned the !
challenge with mocking of insane
laughter.
The old song comes back to me with
quaint thin as write.
HE sent his servant to the town
Where Barb'ry was adwellin',
Sayin' you must go to me own master
Ell your name be Barb'ry Allen"
Then there was another staza that
was very affecting indeed:
''And as she walked down the street.
The bells they wer' atollin',
And every toll they seemed to say,
Hard. he art ed Barb'ry Allen"
Iknow the old song would not at
tune we'll to a parlor organ, and I
doubt if you could play it on grand
piano. But there was a pathos of the
thing that stirred my youthful soulto
it's depths.
Blue-eyed spring began to grow
plump. and finally developed into the
naturer charms of summer. Sum
mer, with the drone OF tine humble bee
at noon, and lazy Lawrence dancing
on the worm fences. Summer time,
sweet summer time! The peaches
ripened and Redeemed, and the corn
silks began to appear. Doc said if the
first silk you saw was a red one you
would be healthy and lucky the bal
ance of the year. The first one he saw
that summer was a red one.
And, oh, the signs and sayings
he taught us. He told us that if we
saw the moon in clear sky it was
lucky. He told us if we killed
a toad our best COW would die. He
told us that the knots in Old Beauty's
name, when we went to feed her of a
| morning-Old Beauty was our horse
were caused by the witches who
rode her the night before, and used
these knots for stirrups. Then he
said when old Dominicker, my favor
ite hen, took a spell OF growing, that
"Whis'lin' women an CROWN hens
is apt to come to some bad end.'
Sure enough, a blue darter hawk
killed old Dominicker the very next
| Sunday.
Doc began to be stout and strong
now. He looked on the faded jacket
and little breeches he wore when he
! first came to our house in sort OF
reminiscently pitying way, for his
arms had grown more muscular, and
his short legs had grown stouter, and
Doc began to be a right good-looking
boy, alter all.
Autumn came with her sad eyes and
sobbing winds. Autumn had deeper
significance than ever before, fer there
were portentious tidings waited from
afar on every breeze that wandered
through the heavens. A big white
comet blazed in the sky, and Doc said
| chat meant war. Dock was respect
able looking lad indeed, now. He was
fifteen years old, but few would have
believed It, His eyes still had that
faraway expression in them. He was
older than his years.
| That was winter long to be re-
membered. Grey uniforms were seen at
the last yearly meeting, held in Nov
ember, and the preachers at that
meeting spoke words that sounded
harshlv in our untutored ears
Young women hummed wariike airs,
and were eager to catch the latest re-
train.
remember how the crimson deep
ened on Cousin Sues brown cheek
when she ratified off:
"Huzza! Huzza! for the bonnie blue flag so
dear,
Huzza! for the sword and plume that
southern soldiers wear!"
| At the first frolic the fiddler wore a
red feather in his hat and played
"Dixie.'
/ Men talked and women sang, and
the warm blood ran riot in the south
ern veins. son to war" "Oh, John
ME, aire you boun' to be Soldier?"
Your waist, it is too slender,
Your hands they are to small,
! And your cheeks too red and rosy,
10 face a cannon ball
And sing oh-and sing oh.
Sure you WILL my deal!"
| One wintry night the northern sky
burst into deep crimson, and we
| knew that the supernatural flame Io
aurora borealis was burning on the
brow OF heaven. Doc said that was
the sign of war Everything was the
sign of war. We had noticed the ON
nous W. on the back of the locusts
in the early autumn. Captain Jack
Rainey had muster every week, and
the tramp, tramp, tramp ofgatherine
squadrons shattered the slumberous
depths of the barrens.
knew that the Doc had met Lucy
Paxton at the frolic, and knew tha,
he had followed her every movement
with a fascinatedigaze She was not
grown up, but she was most grown
they all said. She was thirteen, an6
the young men chose her FOR q part
i ner when they played "all around the
merry pole" and Doc sat and watch
ed her.
These were stirring times. Men ane
, women shattered the fetters of con
ventionality and grew from boys te
men and from girls to women will
marvellous rapidity.
~ At a. candy nlllIinu Doc nlllled car,d1